Centre plans Make in North East India; okays funds worth Rs 2150 cr for tourism, infra

By Newsgram Staff Writer

In an attempt to promote tourism, improve connectivity and other infrastructural projects in the North-Eastern regions of India, government has approved Rs 2150 crore worth of funds for the region, Ministry for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) said.

"Make in North East India", a project similar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India would be taken up, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of state for DoNER said, and added that meetings of the North Eastern Council (NEC) will now be held regularly by rotation in different states of the region.

He also said that the ministry is arranging a student festival in New Delhi by involving the participation of NEC and North Eastern students. Also, construction of more hostels will be undertaken to facilitate North Eastern students studying in the capital city, informed the minister.

"There is also a proposal to set up a study center in Jawahar Lal Nehru university for students from the NE region," Singh said.

Minister of State (I/C) for Sports & Youth Affairs Sarbananda Sonowal after appreciating the initiatives taken by government also suggested that the projects in the region should be taken up as per the requirements of the states and should not be decided unilaterally.

Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs highlighted the issue of organic farming in the region.

Similar issues like tourism, Power, Roads, Civil aviation, Organic farming, Horticulture, Processing and packaging of fruits etc came under the gambit of discussions in the meeting. Difficulties related to implementation of schemes, formulation of project reports and financial constrains were also discussed.